Brewers Rout Rays 10-1 in Game 3, Take 3-0 World Series Lead

The Milwaukee Brewers are one win from their first World Series championship in 44 years after routing the Tampa Bay Rays 10-1 in Game 3 on Monday night at Tropicana Field, taking a 3-0 lead that no team has ever overcome in the event's history.

Milwaukee finished with 16 hits and no errors against three hits and one error for Tampa Bay, according to Major League Baseball's official World Series coverage. The Brewers went 9-for-18 with runners in scoring position, and every starter except Jake Bauers reached base with a hit or an RBI.

A record-setting rally

The game turned on a replay review in the fifth inning. With two outs and the bases empty, Christian Yelich was initially called out on a force play at second before a challenge overturned the ruling, loading the bases. Milwaukee did not make an out again that inning, stringing together seven consecutive two-out hits and scoring eight runs, the most ever recorded with two outs in a single World Series inning, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. Brice Turang opened the scoring with an RBI single that got past Rays shortstop Taylor Walls, and Cooper Pratt's two-run double and Sal Frelick's RBI double followed before Tampa Bay could escape the inning.

Left-hander Robert Gasser carried a one-hit shutout into the seventh, finishing six innings on 75 pitches with one walk and three strikeouts, according to the Brewers' own recap of the win. He faced the minimum 18 batters across those six innings, the first left-hander to do so over at least six innings of a World Series game since Sandy Koufax in 1965, and lowered his postseason ERA to 0.60 across three starts. Jackson Chourio, 22, went 4-for-5 with a double, an RBI, two runs scored and a stolen base, pushing his RBI total to nine for the postseason, tied for the most on Milwaukee's roster.

Tampa Bay starter Freddy Peralta did not survive the decisive fifth, exiting with the bases loaded after 4 2/3 innings; reliever Cam Booser was charged with most of the damage that followed. Milwaukee's bullpen closed it out with Brandon Woodruff working the ninth, allowing two hits, including an RBI double by Yandy Díaz that accounted for Tampa Bay's only run.

The lopsided score was not typical of how Milwaukee scored all season. The Brewers tied for 28th in home runs in the regular season but finished second in runs scored, relying instead on contact and situational hitting. Monday's eight-run inning fit that profile, built on seven consecutive singles and doubles rather than a single decisive swing.

Teams trailing 3-0 in the World Series are now 0-24, and 21 of those series have ended in a sweep, a mark both CNN and ESPN's game coverage cited in recapping the rout. The 1970 Cincinnati Reds were the last team to even force a Game 5 after falling behind 3-0.

How the teams got here

Milwaukee reached the World Series by beating the San Diego Padres in the Division Series, then sweeping the two-time defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Championship Series. Tampa Bay advanced by winning three straight games against the Cleveland Guardians in the American League Championship Series after trailing 2-1. The Brewers have not won a World Series since 1982, when they lost in seven games to the St. Louis Cardinals; the Rays have reached the World Series twice before, in 2008 and 2020, and have yet to win it.

The series opened Friday as a far tighter contest than Monday's rout: Milwaukee won Game 1 3-2 at American Family Field after Yelich's early RBI triple sparked a two-run first-inning rally, with closer Trevor Megill stranding the potential tying and winning runs in the ninth. The Brewers then took Game 2 before the series shifted to Tropicana Field for Game 3.

Who is affected

For Tampa Bay, the loss leaves a roster built around a young core facing elimination at home. Peralta, who is making his first World Series start since being traded to Tampa Bay, will carry the rough outing into an offseason of questions about the rotation. Frelick, who rejoined Milwaukee late in the season despite a torn labrum in his right shoulder that has bothered him on throws since June, is himself a reminder that both rosters are playing through accumulated October wear.

For Milwaukee, the margin removes most of the immediate pressure, though the Brewers have treated the series publicly as unfinished business. A sweep would make the franchise the first to sweep both a League Championship Series and the World Series in the same postseason since the LCS round expanded to a best-of-seven format in 1985.

The atmosphere reflected the lopsided turn. Rays fans were handed rally towels at the Tropicana Field gates before Game 3, a tradition the club has used in past postseason runs, after a pair of full, loud crowds backed the Brewers in Games 1 and 2 at American Family Field in Milwaukee.

What's next

Game 4 is scheduled for Tuesday night at Tropicana Field, with first pitch at 8 p.m. Eastern on Fox, according to the Rays' own schedule listing. Tampa Bay is set to start right-hander Griffin Jax, while Milwaukee is expected to lean on a bullpen-heavy approach rather than name a traditional starter. A Brewers win would clinch the franchise's second World Series title and first since 1982. Should Tampa Bay avoid the sweep, the series would shift back to Milwaukee for a potential Game 6 and Game 7 later in the week, according to Fox 13 Tampa Bay's coverage of the series.